With Christmas upon us and a new year right around the corner, we decided to take a look at some of the disappointing developments of the past year, and award symbolic lumps of coal to those responsible for the actions, or inactions as the case may be.
Mayor Ed Lee
It's been 19 months since San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee brokered a deal with gay Supervisor David Campos to name a terminal at San Francisco International Airport after Harvey Milk, the city's first gay supervisor. Under terms of the arrangement, the Board of Supervisors and the mayor were each to appoint people to an advisory panel, which would suggest which terminal would be named in Milk's honor. The supervisors and mayor would have final approval.
The supervisors picked their appointees months ago. The mayor, however, has yet to name his five people to the committee.
We have yet to hear a satisfactory explanation from Lee about what's taking him so long. In May, the mayor told us that his office "had started putting our folks on it" and would announce the names of his appointees "very soon."
Nothing happened.
In mid-September we met with the mayor and the topic again came up.
"I'm committed to that," Lee said, referring to a terminal being named for Milk. "We don't have our names yet but we're getting close."
Now, it's closing in on 2015 and the mayor still has not picked his appointees.
This is important because at the rate San Francisco's bureaucracy churns, it's now looking increasingly unlikely that any decision will be approved in time for Harvey Milk Day, the May 22 observance, which next year marks what would have been Milk's 85th birthday. That's a milestone anniversary that would have provided the perfect time to unveil a Milk terminal. Even if the mayor announces his picks today, there are meetings, working with the airport management, and securing approval from the mayor and the Board of Supervisors. All of this takes time.
We don't understand the hold-up. At first we thought it was because Lee didn't want to give Campos a success story (the mayor endorsed Campos' opponent, David Chiu, in the Assembly race that Chiu went on to win) ahead of the November election. But that's been over for seven weeks now.
At any rate, Lee has dropped the ball on this project, and that's a shame. We backed the 2013 compromise plan as an alternative to Campos' original proposal of wanting to name the entire airport after Milk. Perhaps we were the ones being shortsighted.
SF planners, disability officials
The recent rains have been a welcome relief for our drought-stricken state, but they have only caused misery for homeless people who, accustomed to the dry winters here, have suddenly been confronted with cold temperatures and days of rainy, windy weather. A planned homeless shelter for LGBT folks has been mired in bureaucratic mumble-jumble for nearly five years. In October we provided an update on the shelter and one of the hold-ups was that to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the shelter needed a parking space. Never mind that the clients likely will not have cars. Thankfully, city bureaucrats signed off on a phased-in plan so that the parking spot can wait, but other permitting hurdles have caused one delay after another.
The idea for this shelter was proposed after a March 2010 hearing called by Campos that revealed widespread problems with the city's shelters when it comes to serving LGBT clients. The staff aren't trained to deal with issues specific to trans people and use the wrong pronouns; there are issues with straight homeless people who stay there, such as name-calling, property theft, and more.
The fact that a progressive city like San Francisco can't open a facility with 24 beds at an existing space is mind-boggling. And while city officials drag their heels, LGBT homeless people are in a no-win situation: stay out on the streets, or be hassled at a shelter.
We had been hopeful the shelter would be open this year, but that didn't happen. Officials need to get it together and solve the bureaucratic mess so that it can open in 2015. The shelter won't solve the city's LGBT homeless problem, but it's a start.
Openhouse
There's a senior art show now on exhibit at the LGBT Community Center, but visitors won't see one photo that was submitted because it was deemed "too graphic" by the jury who selected the pieces.
Openhouse, a nonprofit LGBT senior agency, is sponsoring the art show. Five jurors – all LGBT artists 60 and over who were picked by Openhouse – made the decision.
Longtime gay photographer Lionel Biron, known professionally by his last name, took the photo, titled "Sailor Boy," that features a handsome model with an erect penis. Biron maintains that while he understands the jury made the decision, he's disappointed that the "gay community is censoring itself over sexual images when it is, essentially, though it's been forgotten, a sexual movement."
Rather than nix the artwork, the jury should have accepted it. And instead of caving, Openhouse should have discussed the issue with the jurors. Agency officials have struggled to explain the jurors' decision, especially given that two other pieces that were accepted for the show feature nudity.
Certainly, Biron's piece could have been exhibited somewhere in the center. Visitors could have been told when they check in that there is some explicit material. Heck, Openhouse could have used "Sailor Boy" as a marketing tool and increased attendance – and potentially sales of the art, from which the artist and the LGBT center would benefit.
It's a sad state of affairs with LGBT people start censoring material – decades ago we were the ones being censored, yet some in the community are still doing it.
Art is in the eye of the beholder but people going to the exhibit – Vantage Points: A Lifetime of Perspective , which runs through January 26 – aren't going to be able to behold "Sailor Boy."